A tribute to a master

It’s well-known that A R Rahman’s music has inspired people across the globe — so much so that the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg recently performed a tribute to the legendary composer, in the form of a concert christened ‘Classic Incantations’.

Held at Tripuravasini, Palace Grounds, the orchestra treated the audience to some wonderful A R Rahman’s tunes, as well as some musical pieces from the German film world as well. It included musicians from the K M Music Conservatory also.

This event was the grand finale of a five-city concert tour, and saw a packed audience. There was an air of hushed anticipation at the venue as the orchestra members took their seats on stage. The composer, conductor and orchestrator of the event was Matt Dunkley.

The reigning question in everyone’s minds was whether the musical maestro, A R Rahman would be there himself. He was — in a sense. Although he had to be in Mumbai, as his compositions in Rockstar had been nominated for an award, he made it a point to video conference with the audience in Bangalore. “I didn’t want to miss this, and I’m going to listen to the whole performance on Skype,” said the famous composer, before thanking the members of the orchestra for putting up this show.

After stunning performances in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, expectations ran high in namma Bengaluru as the crowds waited for the orchestra to begin playing.

What’s more, they weren’t disappointed. The orchestra began with a soulful rendition of the ‘Warriors of Heaven and Earth’ suite, which began on a melancholy note and then picked up pace as the performance continued. This was followed by the ever-popular theme from the movie Lagaan, which had many of the audience members humming along.

‘The Rising’ suite and ‘Passage’ suite were up next. After this, the orchestra performed ‘Cry of the Rose’, the suite from ‘Robot’ and ‘127 Hours’, as well as from the epic trilogy ‘Lord of the Rings’.

After a short interval, they took the stage again, this time with the ‘Theme from Bombay’. Up next was a small tribute to Indian composers, after which they played the soundtrack from the movie ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’. They also played the themes from some well-known Bollywood movies, like Swades, after which they performed the Subhash Bose suite and the Meenaxi suite.

The orchestra concluded its performance on a dramatic note, by playing the soundtrack from the Oscar-winning movie, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, for which A R Rahman had received much recognition.